


We Are What We Do

by Tzigane (Tzigrrl)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-07 15:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18413468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tzigrrl/pseuds/Tzigane
Summary: What might happen in Season 6 if Giles didn't leave in quite the same way.





	1. Depression

_“Bury me in satin, Lay me down on a bed of roses, sink me in the river at dawn, send me away with the words of a love song…”_

They had done it.  
Glory was defeated, and Sunnydale and the rest of the world continued on.  
Buffy was gone. Dead. Diving head first into the portal opened by Dawn's blood, probably opening a vein or artery on the way down to continue the feeding, it had done the trick. The portal had closed, the followers of the hellgod had dispersed leaving her victims behind.  
Giles helped Spike to his car and to his flat to try and put his limbs back together.  
Willow took Tara and Dawn back to Revello Drive. She ended up doing a small spell to help all of them stop crying and get some rest.  
Anya and Xander went back to their apartment. By the time they got inside, Anya was sobbing, Xander holding her while his own tears streamed down his face. 

And they went on.  
One day turned into the next.  
After trying to reach their father with no success, Giles made funeral and burial arrangements for Buffy. Not wanting to deal with Angel directly, he called Wesley and shared the news. Angel came to the funeral and then went off to Nepal to find his new purpose now that Buffy was dead.  
Spike's limbs repaired themselves with the help of blood. Lots of it. He and Giles shared more than a bit of scotch together as well.  
Willow changed the programming on the Bot so that it could help out. They only let it out at night, for patrols, and learned the hard way not to let it into Giles' apartment. It suffered a large forehead gash from the book Spike had thrown at it in devastation in seeing her face again.  
Tara held down the family fort at Revello drive and made sure Dawn ate and slept, though usually in Buffy's room.  
Xander went to work and spent his evenings sitting with Anya at the Magic Box until close, then off to Revello for a meal and company. It became a habit to eat together. Something simple usually, but whether it was eggs and toast or spaghetti and garlic bread, it was together. Usually without too much talking. 

And they went on.  
Spike started patrolling again but refused to work on the same nights as the Bot after running into her on patrol once. He didn’t show at the house for two days, until his next patrol.  
Willow started working with telepathic spells to learn how to project her thoughts to the Scoobies during patrol.  
Xander and Anya stopped coming by every night but made a point of making a couple of times a week.  
Giles spent time showing Tara and Dawn how to use his cross-referencing system which he ensured them both was better than Dewey’s decimals.  
And no one was really willing to say it, but they knew it. It felt like what remained was a shadow of what was before. 

And they went on.  
There was a slight chill to the early morning air that heralded a season change, and the demon population of Sunnydale was starting to rise as it did every Autumn.  
School for Tara and Willow had already started. Dawn was due to start in two weeks.  
When it became clear that another Slayer had not been called, Giles pushed the Council to throw weight at the absent Mr. Summers, and he became legal guardian of Dawn. Lengthy discussion by phone led to Faith's release from prison and the appointment of a new Watcher, Rian Fellows. Rian, one of Giles' classmates from the Watcher academy and was a compromise both from Giles' and the Council. He was another legacy Watcher, both his parents had been part of the Council, but unlike so many of the others Rian was level-headed, intelligent and rarely took orders blindly.  
Giles gave his flat over to Rian, and he moved into Revello, taking over Joyce's room. Spike moved into the basement so that the Key had 24 hours of near-obsessive protection and finally, Faith moved into Buffy's room.  
Spike came up to help Dawn pack up Buffy’s room, but Dawn couldn't bear the process and ran out with Mr. Gordo to sit on the back porch which Spike and Tara finished the job.  
The bulk of Giles' books had already been moved to the Magic Box, and his guitar and stereo moved to the basement at Revello where he and Spike would sit and drink and listen to songs from generations past.  
But mostly drink. 

And they went on.  
The bot, Spike and Faith split patrols out between them, the bot was being stored and charged at the Rosenberg’s house, which worked for everyone as it was more than a bit annoying to have around.  
Giles, Spike, Faith, and Dawn made interesting bedfellows, as it were, living in the house on Revello Drive.  
It turned out that both Spike and Giles could cook a mean dish, so dinner became a rotation with Tara cooking there once a week for a large Sunday supper for all.  
Xander and Anya would usually bring something for dessert and leave quickly after dinner was over.  
Most nights Dawn still cried, and Spike sat on the back porch smoking til everyone was asleep. Who knows what he did after.  
Giles drank enough to dull the pain. He was trying to hold it together, but the loss of Buffy, the changes to his life, and the lack of purpose had started taking its toll. 

And they went on.  
And somewhere very different than Sunnydale, Buffy woke up.  
***********************************************************************************************************************************************  
The room she was in reminded her of a vacation she had taken with her parents when she was 13. The walls were creamy white, a ceiling fan lazily turned, and as she turned her head to look to the side, she saw light streaming into windows covered with a filmy gauze that was moving gently. Buffy sat up, looking around the room. Every element of it gave her a sense of peace and contentment. There was Mr. Gordo on the nightstand, which was made of pretty white wicker. The bed she was in had the most amazingly soft cotton sheets, and she was wearing... her Yummy Sushi pajamas!!! She swore these were destroyed when Dawn started doing the laundry...  
Wait... this just feels slightly off... But it just feels so good, she thought as the stretched.  
As she looked across the room, she saw that there was a cart with two containers of juice on it. She skipped out of bed and over to the cart to see there were containers of fresh fruit, the juices (which were grapefruit and orange, which she loved to combine!), a basket of delicious looking pastries and a cup that looked like it had...  
Yup! That's a moccachino with extra cinnamon! This is just perfect!  
Buffy indulged herself in the meal and enjoyed the peace and quiet. This was The Life.  
For about five minutes.  
Then she started to feel antsy like she needed to get out and DO something.  
She looked around and saw a lovely wardrobe in an empty corner of the room. Old wood, well taken care of, it reminded her of one in her Aunt Arlene’s house. She went over to it softly and slowly opened the door. Once it was open, she saw clothes that she recognized from her closet and well as some lovely new things!  
She spent a bit of time trying on the new items and just as she had worked her way through the last, she sighed.  
Now comes the not so fun part of putting them all back, Buffy thought, as she turned toward the chair she had been using as a clothes horse. She froze. She frowned. The chair sat there, looking tidy and pleasant. Not an article of clothing to be seen. Buffy, wrinkling her nose, looked around the room and then back to the wardrobe where everything she had tried on was now rehung as neatly as it was when she arrived.  
She raised an eyebrow. Then, suddenly a smile took over her face.  
Okay, this is like the best place, ever!  
***********************************************************************************************************************************************  
"Hey, anybody, I'm home," Dawn said quietly, not actually wanting any attention. She was returning from Janice's an hour before her dusk curfew and just wanted peace and quiet. She hoped everyone was out and she could just go and hide in her room.  
" 'Lo, Nibblet," said Spike as he poked his head out of the dining area towards her. He was dressed, as usual, in black jeans and a t-shirt, though his hair was not yet tamed by gel, "Just gettin' brekky. Do you wanna join?"  
"I'm gonna go do homework...uh, I mean, write morosely in my room," she shifted her response as Spike's scarred eyebrow started to rise at her obvious lie.  
"Right then," he cleared his throat. "Rupes is on dinner duty tonight, so expect fried chicken on the table with us at 7. No skippin' it."  
Dawn ducked her head down and swung her hair over her face as she turned towards the stairs and sighed. "Fiiiiiinnne. 7 o'clock." And up she went, dragging her backpack as though it weighed a ton.  
Spike walked back into the kitchen and drug his right hand through his hair as he picked up his mug of blood and drank it down quickly. Need more Burba Weed. This batch is just a bit too old. With another sigh, he rinsed the cup and then moved to the wall phone to call Giles and have him bring the herb home from work. He bloody hated being dependent on the git, but he couldn't leave Dawn alone at all right now--she had proven more than once to be operating without anything like common sense, and the sun was still shining brightly in the eastern sky. It could be worse, but the days were unbearably long and only tolerable with enough distractions so that he didn't think about her every minute of every day.  
And why wasn't Watcherman answering the phone...?  
He pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and sent a text message to Anya and the Whelp, "R u @ mgcbx?"  
He paced the floor waiting for a response with the phone in his hand. When it buzzed twice, he flipped it open to see a message from Anya, "Took today off."  
Spike flipped the phone shut with a swear word and then opened it again and pressed 7 long 'til he heard a ringtone. He had to admit this little thing was much more useful than he had expected, but he had to keep it in his hand so that the volume didn't drive him batty.  
A muffled "Hello?" could be heard through the speaker.  
"Red?"  
"Spike?"  
"No answer at the Magic Box. Rupes is supposed to be there alone and I've got Niblet here."  
"We're leaving campus now. We can be there in less than 10. We'll call you back."  
Spike shut the phone and continued to pace. Then stopped in the midst of the front hall, took a deep breath and put the phone back in his pocket. He moved quickly to the basement door and took himself downstairs on his bare feet to get dressed and ready for anything...  
Three hours later, Giles was walking up the front walk to 1630 Revello with a slightly uneven gait. Spike heard him coming and sat back in his chair looking at the rest of the dining room. Willow and Xander were off on the hunt for the Watcher, while he and Tara were here with Dawn and a couple of pizzas trying not to be too worried...  
Giles headed directly towards the stairs and his bed that kept calling his name until he heard Dawn call his name and move towards him. "Are you okay, Giles?" Dawn asked.  
Giles smiled at her in a fond, liquor-soaked kind of way and put an arm around her shoulder.  
"Why just fine, Dawn, thank you for asking. Just off to [hic] bed, if you don't mind...?"  
"O...o...okk, Giles," she said, ducking her head, "G'night."  
"Goodnight, Dawn," Giles murmured, already heading upstairs while holding onto the banister somewhat firmly.  
Dawn came back to her seat at the table and tried very hard to not look at anyone or anything.  
With a small sigh, Tara got up with her plate and took it to the kitchen, where she called off the search party by text message before going back to the table and starting to tidy up the dinner mess.  
Spike followed her into the kitchen with the boxes and extra napkins after negotiating her bedtime since it was Thursday and he had to compete with Friends and Will & Grace for her agreement. Thank goodness she wasn't into that silly show about witches anymore, but likely because it followed Gilmore Girls which she hadn't been able to watch since...  
"You git, you can't go an hour without thinking about her. Let alone a day. We all know why Rupes is in the bag. AGAIN. But what is there to do?"  
As though reading his mind, Tara started off with, "We have to do something. He isn't getting any better."  
"I think we've hit a new low, luv. This is the first time we've found him out on closing the shop early to drink. I'll try and talk sense into him again in the morning." Spike reached over and curved his right hand around the nape of her neck while placing a light kiss at the top of her forehead. "I've got a TV date with the Nib; then I'm on for cemetery patrol tonight."  
"I...I...I'm going to join you until Willow and Xander get here, then he can drive us both h..h..home," Tara stated.  
Spike nodded and then donned his duster that was hanging by the back door to take advantage of the back porch for a smoke and some thought. He hesitated as he sat down, trying not to think about other nights on this porch, nights when he wasn’t this alone. 

_“And there's a storm that's raging through my frozen heart tonight.”_


	2. Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Scoobies try and make it all work, but some members are floundering. Buffy is somewhere else and feeling restless.

_“These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real.”_  


“Come on! I’m never gonna get anything killed with you lot holding me back!” Spike shouted while chasing the rather large vampire through the graveyard.

“I thought…” Tara wheezed, “the big ones tire more easily…”

“I’m fine. I just need to… need to…,” Giles paused and groaned, “die … for a minute…”

“It was that powder you blew at him made him rabbit out,” Spike said, accusingly.

“It’s Sobri root!” Tara exclaimed, “It’s supposed to confuse him but it kinda just made him...peppy! It’s not supposed to mix with anything -- do you think he might be taking prescription medication?”

Spike slowly turned his head and raised his scarred eyebrow. _Since when are you such an idiot, Tara?_

“Yeah, yeah, that must be it,” Spike replied, barely keeping his ridicule in check.

“Good God! What if he attempts to operate heavy machinery?!” Giles exclaimed, quite sarcastically.

Laughing, Spike responded, “We could all be-”

Suddenly, Willow’s voice was in all three of their heads. “Guys! Heads up!”

They all perked up and paid attention.

“The vampire’s circling back towards you. Six o’clock. Try to drive him towards the Van Elton crypt.”

“Van Elton?” questioned Giles.

“It’s the one with the cute little gargoyle-” replied Tara.

Suddenly, the vampire burst back into the clearing. He stopped, seeing the trio, and turned to run again but was hampered by the crypt. He hesitated then, just long enough.

Willow cried, “Spike! Take your shot!”

All three heard it telepathically.

Spike raised his stake crossbow and fired; a direct hit, only not quite. The bolt didn’t go deep enough.

Too much vamp.

_Bloody Sumo wrestler turned Vampire._

Giles moved to strike the vampire with his battle axe, but the vampire grabbed the axe and drove Giles back with it -- pushing him up against a crypt and using the axe handle to choke him.

Spike jumped on the vampire’s back and tried to pull him off Giles.

Wasn’t happening.

Spike was strong, but this thing was HUGE. He tried to reach his stake and shove it in deeper, as the not-so-smart vampire had left it in, but no go.

So he did the only thing he could.

Seconds later he was thrown off the gigantic lump. Spike landed on his feet and stood and watched for a few seconds… and then a few more as the vampire continued to choke Giles.

“S-s-s-spike!” croaked Giles.

“Spike!” screamed Willow, “What are you doing?! Help him!”

Finally satisfied, he brought his lighter up with his left hand and a smoke in his right and lit the cigarette just as it became clear to everyone that the hulking vampire was on fire.

The vampire noticed too, a second later, and released Giles with a rather high-pitched scream right before it imploded into ash, covering Giles in the process.

Giles, coughing, brushed himself down and turned towards Spike.

“You might have let me in on your plan,” he grumbled.

“It was more fun this way, mate. Dumb idjit wasn’t going down and well--”

Spike was cut off by Willow in his head again.

“Faith, Rian, and Xander are done at Restfield. Meet you all at the gate?”

“Quite, though I could use a... another minute,” Giles wheezed.

***********************************

“Are you ready, Bit?”

Dawn sighed and stood up from the breakfast bar, grabbing her book bag and swinging it and her hair over her shoulder.

“I don’t see why-”

“Ready, Dawn?” asked Giles, as he walked in from the front hall. “Yes? Alright, I’ll warm up the car.” He exited back through the kitchen’s swing door.

“Bit, Giles’ your guardian and SUN proof. You’ll tell me about it when you get home.”

“You can tell ALL of us about it when you get home,” said Tara.

“Okay, okay,” Dawn caved, with only the slightest roll of her eyes, “Thanks for coming over, Tara.

“Of course, sweetie. Have a good time.”

“It is completely tossed that they are having back to school NIGHT before dark,” complained Spike as soon as he heard the front door snick shut.

Tara put a hand on his shoulder for a moment and said nothing.

“What a touching scene,” said a bedraggled looking Faith as she came into the kitchen in a t-shirt and pajama pants, obviously more than half asleep.

Taking that as his cue, Spike quietly, too quietly, moved to the basement stairs and was gone.

Tara looked at Faith with some recrimination at her lack of tact and started putting the breakfast things into storage containers.

***********************************

“As you can see, we provide the best in progressive learning. But we can’t teach your child unless you do,” said the teacher at the front of a chalkboard.

Giles was stuck in the midst of the classroom, fitting into one of the seats along with other parents. He felt awkward and out of place even though he was dressed casually, and not the oldest parent in the room, by far.

“As parents, you have a responsibility to create the right attitude. To teach them

what school can mean. Parents let kids focus on school as a social experience, rather

than a learning experience. We want you to get your kids as excited about

education as they are about lunch hour,” the teacher continued.

Giles couldn’t have been antsier.

He wanted to be away from this room and he wanted a drink.

Dawn was looking down at her notebook and doodling rather than listening to the teacher. She wished it could have been Spike here. But even as that thought crossed her mind she realized that no one could ever make up for it not being Mom. She would be upset, just a little upset, even if it were Buffy.

The tears started leaking down her face onto the page and she was afraid she was going to just start sobbing so she jumped up and ran out of the room.

Giles, startled out of his own thoughts, got up and, giving a chagrined look to the teacher, followed Dawn out of the room.

"Well that was, perhaps, the most bored I've been since... well, since the Academy," Giles said, looking down on Dawn thoughtfully as he caught up to her. "I think it's time for some junk food. Pizza? or Burgers?"

"What, no fish and chips?" Dawn teased as she looked up at him.

Her tear-stained face broke his heart just a little more.

"Funny, ha-ha. Burgers it is."

Giles put his arm around Dawn's shoulders and off they went down the hall, both feeling the relief of the reprieve.

"As long as it isn't Doublemeat,” Dawn added, off-handedly, “that place gives me the wiggies."

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

Buffy was walking along the street, her hair swinging, wearing a flattering white dress covered by a red and white toreador jacket, a full face of makeup, large hoop earrings and carrying shopping bags from many places.

She had had a lovely day.

The sun was shining, the stores were open, she had credit cards (SO MANY credit cards) and was able to buy whatever she wanted. She'd had a facial and a manicure and spent HOURS trying on shoes. The one pair that she couldn't resist, after trying on almost **everything** in the store, was a lovely pair of strappy heels. Mostly black but with little jewels of gold and black that shimmered when she walked.

She couldn't wait to wear them to dinner.

Dinner? Where _would_ she get dinner? The hotel? There had to be a restaurant.

As she walked, she saw her hotel in the distance and sure enough (!) there was a restaurant on the ground floor. As she came closer, it looked lovely. Big windows, charming bistro tables out front, music playing from hidden speakers. The perfect place for dinner with...well, that had her pausing. Who would she go with?

She stopped a minute, the smile freezing on her face, her eyes going blank.

After a bit, she shook her head to clear it, the smile suddenly back in place. _I think I'll wear the black skirt and the sequined top to dinner. I wonder if there is dancing…_

_ *********************************************************************************************************************************************** _

Willow was putting the last of the hand washing away in the kitchen and Tara was wiping down the counters. They both were subdued and serious. Spike came in from the back porch.

"So, witches, we have to talk about this."

Willow looked over at Spike, squinted a bit in dismay, and went back to the dishes. Tara sighed and turned to look at Spike, leaning with her left hip against the island counter.

"Is Dawn asleep?" she asked him.

"Yeah, about 10 minutes ago.”

Yet another reason Tara was grateful for Spike. He could hear all the going-ons here without having to trek up the stairs and peek around doorways. Very useful in a home with teenagers and sad and depressed adults.

Tara sighed, "He obviously had a drink with dinner."

Spike scoffed, "More like 3 or 4, or a flask helping out a glass."

Willow followed up, somewhat weakly, as she faced the sink, "And then he drove her home."

Her voice broke on the last word.

"He did," agreed Spike, the disgust in his voice evident as his head swiveled to look out the kitchen window at nothing.

Tara moved to Willow and touched her shoulder from behind in support, able to tell she was forcing back tears.

 "Tomorrow, after Dawn leaves for school? We can come back over and-"

Tara was interrupted by loud noises coming from the front porch.

They all moved to the front hall just in time to see Faith come in with the Buffybot. She was visibly injured with a new gash in her forehead.

"Willow!" exclaimed the Buffybot, somewhat cheerfully and out of context with her appearance.

Ignoring the Bot, Willow looked at Faith, "What happened? Are you okay?"

Buffybot walked into a side table, knocking over a vase, which Spike caught.

"I'm fine, Wills. But the Bot here got into a scrape while she was on patrol."

"I think my feet are broken," said the Bot, as if to confirm.

Willow moved to the Buffybot and helped her to sit on the couch in the living room. Tara went back into the kitchen and Spike just leaned against the doorway, his fists clenched under his crossed arms.

"Looks more like a short in the navigational system," Willow surmised, "Spike, can you get me the flashlight from the kitchen."

He rolled his eyes, but went into the hallway and got one from the top drawer of the desk.

Faith sighed, "I tried to get her to sit and wait so I could call you, but she just kept walking even though she was unsteady and kept running into things."

"My homing device locates you when I'm injured. I'm programmed to go to you."

"I know. Still, just this once it was a good idea to stay put."

Spike returned with the flashlight just in time to see Buffybot looking sweetly at him.

"Hi, Spike. I wish you had been on patrol with me. Then I wouldn't have minded sitting. You know I admire your brain almost as much as your washboard abs."

Spike frowned and turned away from the Bot.

With visible restraint on his emotions, Spike glared at Willow.,

"I told you to make her stop doing that."

"I...I did. I mean, I thought I got all that stuff out of the program--"

"Well, FIX it this time," he said, teeth gritted.

"Sure. I mean, I'll do my best, Spike. I've got a lot of work here, but I'll see what I can do."

Tara looked at Willow and the Bot.

"Maybe it's best she...er...it comes home with us tonight? We can bring her back, you know, in the morning..."

Spike winced. "Yeah, Glinda, fine. We'll meet in the morning. Ta."

He glided out of the room and back towards the basement.

“You’d think he could deal with this a bit better, “ grouched Faith.

Willow winced and started to speak, but Tara beat her to it.

“He has regret.”

“We all do,” said Willow, turning back to look at the Bot’s pretty smile. “I wish we could find a way to fix things.”

********************

Anya and Xander were at home wrapped up in each other in bed.

Xander was under the covers with them resting at his hips, and Anya was lying next to him wearing a chocolate brown camisole. Her hair was definitely all post-coital and she was snuggled into a pillow looking at a _very_ sated Xander.

She had a not large diamond ring on her left ring finger.

“We should tell them Sunday! At dinner. It will be good news for everyone.” Anya said excitedly.

“Ahn, honey, now is just not the time. Until we have this… uh... meeting.”

“Intervention, you mean. That’s what it is. We had them for other justice demons once a century or so. That amount of power can be intoxicating, but it can also cause you to have serious backlash and sometimes all you can do is grab the closest thing and ... and…”

“Ahn, hon...”

“... snort it! But I personally didn’t find that the interventions worked. A user is a user and it’s better just to get mad and curse the thing you are angry at. Or better yet, just beat it to a bloody pulp with a hammer.”

Anya sighed,  “But we were demons and I know you do things differently here. Do interventions work better here? I still did a lot of wishes for people involved with drunks...”

Anya seemed for a moment like she was going to run out of steam, but she took a deep breath and Xander reached over and pulled her towards him to give her a long kiss.

He pulled away breathing heavily. “I love you, Honey.” Anya smiled and snuggled into his shoulder, closing her eyes.

*********************

Giles couldn’t  sleep, again. It seemed that as soon as he got into a deep sleep he was jarred awake by a dream, a small sound, anything. Something that had never happened to him before all of this.

He sat up in bed, wearing fitted boxers and a v neck T-shirt, and scrubbed at his face before running his hands through his hair.

Without turning on the light, he reached into the bedside table and effortlessly pulled out a flask.

He jiggled it slightly, grimaced, and opened it, tilting it into his mouth for not more than a drop.

He turned on the light and got up, somewhat clumsily moving to the dresser. He opened one drawer and then another, until he finally looked in the closet, leaving the chaos of open drawers around him only to realize that he was, indeed, spiritless.

He sighed and started to get dressed, thinking a quick drive to the offie should

get him there before they closed for the night ** _._**

Spike heard the Watcher leave from the basement and put down his book, his middle finger holding space between the pages. He listened a moment, frowned and with a sigh went back to the book.

Fifteen minutes later, Giles was relieved and in possession of three bottles of Dewars. Not his favorite by any means, but definitely the right pick for now.

He hesitated, he sighed, he grimaced, then reached into the bag and pulled out a bottle and opened it. With a few ounces of the whiskey in his system, he had a sense of relief that had been missing since he went to sleep hours before.

There was the potential for _quiet_.

He leaned his head against the headrest of the sports car and closed his eyes for just a minute.

Tara and Willow let themselves into the house.

Willow carried the canvas bag full of breakfast makings into the kitchen while Tara checked that the window shades around the ground floor were drawn for Spike before going to the basement door and tapping it lightly.

She quietly moved into the kitchen and took the coffee bag out of the freezer. As she scooped the grounds into the coffee maker’s filter, Spike appeared at the edge of the kitchen.

“Red. Glinda,”  he acknowledged them. He appeared somewhat awkward as he stood there in his black jeans and T-shirt, looking rather put together for 6 in the morning. Tara looked at him, started the coffee maker and then turned towards him.

“Spike? What is it?”

He grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at them. “Dawn is still asleep. I turned her alarm off.” Spike took an unneeded breath and expelled all the words at once: “Watcherdidn’tcomehomelastnight...“

Willow froze from putting bacon into the skillet she had hot on the stove.

“He what?!” She exclaimed, a combination of worry and anger coloring her voice.

“He didn’t.. but he wouldn’t.. he couldn’t...Dawn...Did he know we were gonna...” she stuttered to a stop.

“When ‘e wasn’t home by four I went looking, but he drove off around one and I figured it was just to the store or bar. But I couldn’t smell ‘im anywhere around.”

Tara inadvertently squished up her nose and frowned, unsure what to say.

Willow looked down at the limp pork in her hand. “We need to do a locator spell.”

“Everythin’ is already set up downstairs,” Spike offered.

Willow silently washed her hands and then headed downstairs, and Tara took over where Willow had been with breakfast. The transition was seamless, as if they knew what each other was thinking.

Everyone dreading finding out where Giles actually was.

Spike still looked uncomfortable and hesitant,“Does a locator spell work if you’re dead?”

“Th..th..there’s a variant that needs hair...”

“Right,” Spike seemed to lose the hesitancy immediately.  “I’ll get his hairbrush and then wake the ‘Bit.”

The phone rang and Tara moved to pick it up quickly.

“Hello?”

Spike flinched as he heard the caller and recognized the Welsh tones of Rian.

He moved to the basement and called, “Red. Come up, he’s been found.”

Willow ran up the stairs. Breathless, she looked frightened now instead of mad.

Tears filled Tara’s eyes as she turned away from the phone.

“He’s at Sunnydale General!”

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

Buffy walked into her room and was welcomed by low lighting and peaceful music.

She smiled as she looked around and walked around the room, lightly trailing her hand along the furniture as she passed it. The room was lovely, but it was… missing something… something she needed…

Mr. Gordo was right there and she petted him fondly.

_No, no, not that kind of need. It’s… deeper than that_ and there in the corner, there it was.

She wandered towards it with a smile deepening. So many memories, so many times she had done just this.

Buffy knelt down and touched the wood, worn where her hands had opened it night after night. Scuffs in the corner from when it had been hurriedly shoved into the closet. She opened the chest and saw her tools of the craft.

She took out a stake and twirled it in her right hand as she stood up. Her lovely skirt and shimmering top seamlessly morphed into jeans and a long sleeved top with sturdy, yet fashionable, boots on her feet; her body effortlessly shifting into position and finding balance on her toes.

Her lips twitched upwards with anticipation, “Time to find something to hunt.”  


_“There's a silver light and it's trying to shine but it can't get through_  
_When the dark is blindin' and I can't find my way to you.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song quoted at the beginning is "My Immortal" written by Amy Lee, Ben Moody, David Hodges and sung by the group Evanescence (of which they are all members, and Amy's haunting voice sings the lyric.
> 
> The song quoted at the end is "Speak To Me" written by Lucy Schwartz, Sarah Siskind, Tofer Brown and sung by Clare Bowen and Sam Palladino.


End file.
